A new plan that will cap students at 13 units during their registration appointment for next semester was presented at Tuesday’s A.S. meeting.
Dr. Cynthia Rawitch, associate vice president for undergraduate studies, presented the plan.
“The most important message is that students really need to think out what are the 13 units they really need,” Rawitch said. “They need to plan a little bit more than what they usually do.”
Rawitch said the director of admissions and records came up with the idea to divide registration into two parts.
Students who have already registered will be able to go back into their portal July 19 and register for up to 17 units, Rawitch said. Students who want more than 17 units can fill out an extra unit authorization form that will allow them to add 19 units total, she added.
“I think it’s probably one of the better ideas the university has come up with,” said Conor Lansdale, A.S. vice president. “I like the idea because it’s not a fee increase.”
Students cannot really afford a fee increase, but what they can manage is their time and making their work schedules fit their school schedules, Lansdale added.
“I think it’s a very unfortunate situation to be in,” said A.S. President Abel Pacheco. “The university is trying to figure out the fairest way for students (to get in the right) classes.”
Pacheco said it was not ideal and it’s not perfect, but it’s a fair and balanced way for students to get into at least some of the classes they’ll need. Students who want to take more classes will still have the opportunity to do so, Pacheco added.
On one hand there are students trying to take as many classes as possible. On the other hand, there are the students who are just trying to get into a class that will count for credit, Pacheco said.
“It’s a matter of equality and it’s a matter of fairness,” Rawitch said. “There are more students than classes available and for the first round everyone gets a shot at 13 units.”
Students often register for 19 units because they like to shop around and then end up dropping classes at the last moment leaving those spots unavailable for other students, Rawitch said.
“It’s not fair for students to shop around then drop,” Lansdale said. “It gives everyone the same choices and it makes students make choices that they will stick behind.”
The two groups of people exempted from the policy will be graduating seniors and first time freshman, Rawitch said.
“We don’t want graduating seniors to have to fight for classes their last semester,” Rawitch said.
It’s a different impact for graduating seniors and incoming freshman, Lansdale said. There is still a cap, but at least they will be able to take an extra course or a lab if they want to.
Many CSU campuses have their students register in the same format, though everyone is a little bit different in terms of caps, Rawitch said.
She said she expects it to work out well because schools like Cal Poly Pomona and San Francisco State have been pleased with it on their campuses.
“I don’t know if it will be needed for spring, but my guess is that we’ll do it again,” Rawitch said.
